South Florida's Commuting Cost Ranks 4th

The Miami-fort Lauderdale Area Nears The Top Of The Nation's Most Expensive Areas For Driving To Work.

December 2, 2000|By MICHAEL TURNBELL, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

South Florida sprawl forces drivers here to fork over more of their hard-earned money to get behind the wheel than in most metro areas in the country.

And on average, they're spending more each year to drive and own a car than on education, food or health care, according to a report released Thursday by two public-interest groups.

Poorest families spend the most, with sometimes more than one-third of their income going to transportation costs.

The Miami-Fort Lauderdale area ranks fourth in the survey of the 28 most expensive metro areas for commuting. The West Palm Beach-Boca Raton area didn't make the list.

In 1997 and 1998, the latest years for which figures are available, South Florida households spent an average of $6,684 a year on transportation, according to the study. Only housing costs took a bigger bite out of their budgets.

Houston, Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth topped Miami-Fort Lauderdale in the report. Rounding out the top 10 are Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Kansas City and the Tampa Bay area.

The study, Driven to Spend, was written by the Washington, D.C.-based Surface Transportation Policy Project, a nonprofit group that advocates alternatives to driving, and the Center for Neighborhood Technology.

"Transportation has gotten expensive for many American families," said Roy Kienitz, executive director of the project. "Because of sprawl, driving has changed from a convenient choice into an expensive necessity."

The study says the high cost of transportation can hurt family finances by shifting money away from an investment in home ownership toward an asset that depreciates.

"While a less expensive home far from town may seem to be a good bargain, many families end up spending more on vehicles to reach that home," said Charles Pattison of 1000 Friends of Florida, a so-called smart growth advocacy group that released the study Thursday in Tallahassee.

Scott Bernstein, president of the Center for Neighborhood Technology, one of the study's co-authors, said every $10,000 invested in a home can reap $4,370 in equity over 10 years, while $10,000 spent on a car will yield $910.

"There is a big difference for American households between buying a car and watching savings go down, and buying a house and watching wealth go up," Bernstein added.

The study says sprawl forces people to live farther from work or shopping, limits their travel choices and requires them to own cars. It notes that about 75 percent of automobile costs go toward simply owning a car, without ever driving a mile. Insurance, fuel, parking and maintenance costs also are factors.

"In better-designed communities, families have more choices about getting around, and so can spend less on cars," Pattison said.

But others say the issue of sprawl is more complex.

Gary Brosch, chairman of the Center for Transit Research at the University of South Florida in Tampa, said it isn't always clear that cities with higher density development and more transit options afford a cheaper lifestyle. The money saved on transportation, he said, is likely plowed into other expenses that are higher.

"I'm not trying to argue that sprawl is less costly. But it is not as simple as you might think," Brosch said. "We need to have the kind of development patterns that will make transit successful and the kind of transit that will make development successful. It works both ways."

The study recommends that state and local governments spend more on transit and bike lanes, and make neighborhoods safer for walking instead of building more roads. They also urge government and businesses to offer incentives to employees to share rides with co-workers.